Nirbhaya convicts set to hang tomorrow as they exhaust every legal remedy

The Tihar jail authorities on Thursday told the trial court that none of the legal remedies of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya rape case are pending, as the court reserved its order on an application filed by the convicts seeking stay on their execution scheduled for 5.30 a.m. on Friday.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana reserved the order.

The four convicts have been trying to postpone the hanging on the pretext of pending legal remedies. "No legal remedies are pending as of now. Pawan and Akshay's second mercy was also not entertained by the President of India," Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmad told the court.

He said President Ram Nath Kovind had entertained their first mercy plea on merits and it was given due consideration.

Four convicts -- Vinay, Mukesh, Akshay, and Pawan are scheduled to be hanged by the noose on March 20 at 5:30 a.m. for brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on December 16, 2012.

In another manoeuvre to delay the ensuing death sentence, three death-row convicts, represented by advocate A.P. Singh, had knocked on the doors of the trial court two days before the hanging seeking stay on their hanging on the grounds that their legal remedies are pending.

--IANS

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